The Unofficial "Ask a Stupid Question" Thread

Anyone interested in a front bird emblem w/ blue feet? Went looked at a '97 (July '96build date) at pick a part today and saw the front is intact if anyone needs a header panel.
 
Are you guys who have the access to be writing your own tunes able to write them for others, or does sct get pissed at you?
 
They keep it pretty tightly locked down. You need to have a serial-number encoded dongle connected to the computer in order to run the PRP. Every XCal is VIN locked to the vehicle it has tuned (until it's returned to stock) and the PRP only has access to the database for the car you're tuning. I know it's possible to get multiple databases for a single license if you have more than one car and tuner but I don't know if they require a copy of the registration to prove you own the car, or lock the serial number of the PRP license/dongle to the serial number of the XCal.

In short, I think it would be possible (with the right database) to write a tune for another car, but that car's owner would need their own XCal and PRP/license with that database to be able to burn that tune to their XCal and subsequently flash it to their car's PCM.
 
To do 3 cars, I have 3 tuners,and had to send copies of 3 titles. and they noticed when I changed the eec in the tbird. The vin is in 4he eec somewhere. I had to explain.
 
I want to do another lighting chance. I want the front turn signals to stand out more at night. I'm considering two options:

A.
Install supplemental turn signals in the lower grille. '96 Sable turn signals are an almost perfect fit. Would this negatively affect airflow for cooling?

B.
Install relays that turn off that parking light feed during turn signal operation, so that the existing turn signals go bright>off>bright>off instead of the stock bright>dim>bright>dim. The cornering light feed would serve as the off trigger.

Which do you all prefer?
 
Grog6 said:
To do 3 cars, I have 3 tuners,and had to send copies of 3 titles. and they noticed when I changed the eec in the tbird. The vin is in 4he eec somewhere. I had to explain.
Click to expand...


I haven’t. Two different MBE3 PCMs, three different xcals and I sure as shit never had to send them a copy of my title(nor would I if they asked).

The Xcal is the thing that VIN locks, the tunes themselves are just.mtf files, so theoretically you could write a tune send the file via email to someone else with PRP and their own Xcal and load it in your car. Even the catch code doesn’t really matter much as 96-97s all use the same strategy, data for an MBE3 would be the same for FTE1. You might not be able to open the tune in your database but you could “load all values” or “load selected values” from it into it.

But yes it does violate the license agreement
 
I have the mbe2 code, and have written to fte1 and mbe3 eecs.
Both the fte1 and mbe3 eecs died.
When I asked about 3 cars, they asked for title pix, in my name, and address. After I had dongle issues, they asked about the new eec. I showed them the thread at the old place, where the 97 was having probs.
They were hapoy, and my shit worked again.
 
Grog6 said:
To do 3 cars, I have 3 tuners,and had to send copies of 3 titles. and they noticed when I changed the eec in the tbird. The vin is in 4he eec somewhere. I had to explain.
Click to expand...
Grog6 said:
I have the mbe2 code, and have written to fte1 and mbe3 eecs.
Both the fte1 and mbe3 eecs died.
When I asked about 3 cars, they asked for title pix, in my name, and address. After I had dongle issues, they asked about the new eec. I showed them the thread at the old place, where the 97 was having probs.
They were hapoy, and my shit worked again.
Click to expand...

The other thing is I straight up don’t have a matching title since my EEC is from a junked 97 Tbird and I the car I have it installed in and have a title for obviously doesn’t match, yet had no issue getting my MBE3 database, as once again they plain didn’t ask for it, just year, make model and catch code.

To do 3 cars you need 3 tuners, but if they’re all the same strategy you just need one database. Pro racer isn’t vin locked, nor has it any way of knowing what the VIN is since tunes are uploaded to the Xcal from your computer independent of the vehicle, there’s no direct path of communication
 
Apparently it pulls the vin from the eec; they had the vin to the new one, that I bought from tccoa. I didn't know it.
I was cool with their requests; violating the lic agreement, and not only do you lose access, They won't sell you another.
They thought I tuned 5 cars, and needed a dealer package.
 
Grog6 said:
Apparently it pulls the vin from the eec; they had the vin to the new one, that I bought from tccoa. I didn't know it.
I was cool with their requests; violating the lic agreement, and not only do you lose access, They won't sell you another.
They thought I tuned 5 cars, and needed a dealer package.
Click to expand...

It’s not possible, you upload the tune from your laptop to the Xcal and upload the tune from the Xcal to the car independently, where’s PRP seeing the VIN?
 
The VIN is not programmed into our EECs, or any EECV computer. Ford didn’t start doing that until the EECVI was introduced in 2003, and even then it was only on certain vehicles.
 
If I had to guess, I'd say there's a UID/checksum in each PCM that the XCal uses to determine if it's connected to the same PCM it's locked to.

Seems more in-line with the tech available in the early/mid 90s as these PCMs were being engineered. :)
 
theterminator93 said:
If I had to guess, I'd say there's a UID/checksum in each PCM that the XCal uses to determine if it's connected to the same PCM it's locked to.

Seems more in-line with the tech available in the early/mid 90s as these PCMs were being engineered. :)
Click to expand...

That’s definitely not in question as there is a lock anyone who had the unfortunate pleasure of buying a used locked xcal can attest(raises hand), but for the PRP software? I confidently say no way
 
I doubt the PRP knows which PCM its tuner is flashing, but does the PRP know if the XCal it's writing the tune to is the same?

In other words, is the dongle serial/license "locked" to the same XCal? I've never had to try using a different one so I honestly have no idea. I wouldn't be surprised either way.
 
theterminator93 said:
I doubt the PRP knows which PCM its tuner is flashing, but does the PRP know if the XCal it's writing the tune to is the same?

In other words, is the dongle serial/license "locked" to the same XCal? I've never had to try using a different one so I honestly have no idea. I wouldn't be surprised either way.
Click to expand...

I don’t think so, I’ve used two different X2s and one X3 I briefly had with the software without issue. I don’t think the software itself really cares about anything but the dongle.

In fact I’m not entirely certain you couldn’t just load a tune file created in PRP to the free liveload software non-PRP users use to upload mail order tunes with to load into the Xcal rather than direct (I’ve never tried since its less convenient). If that’s the case there’s basically no way the PRP software can know anything about what happens with the tune after it’s saved to the computer.
 
Here we go again, this time with 50% more proof! 😬 so a lil while back I posted a picture of some bracing Dale Brown on the FB group had made for the IRS, basically connecting the front control arm points to the rear. I’ve added picture for reference.


IMG_6287.jpeg

After snooping around I found something VERY similar to this brace in the factory IRS from the terminator cobra, basically tying the control arms points together, you can see the bars in the 2 pictures below.


IMG_8349.jpegIMG_8350.jpeg


Which leads me to the s550 mustang IRS, in this picture you can see they added a big ass beam of metal also connecting the front and rear arms together. I’m no engineer but to me it seems they added it in order to reduce flex across the subframe. You can see how it wraps UNDER the axles. Once again, I believe there is some validity to the braces Dale has made
IMG_8383.webpIMG_8382.png


Thoughts??
 

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